Smartwatch Popularity Booms With Fitness Trackers On The Slide

Worldwide wearables sales will grow by an average of 20 percent each year over the next five years, becoming a $29 billion market with 243 million unit sales by 2022. That’s the word according to industry analyst CCS Insight, who also note that the growth is being powered by smartwatches, with fitness trackers losing ground in 2017.

CCS’ report states that 71 million smartwatches will be sold in 2018, doubling to 140 million in 2022, but that sales of fitness trackers fell by 18% in 2017 – to 40 million units; 23 percent lower than its peak in 2016, with just two companies accounting for 80 percent of the whole market.

Those two companies are Fitbit, who dominate in the western world and Huami (a subsidiary of Xiaomi), who have the Chinese market sewn up.

Back to the smartwatches and you won’t be surprised that it’s the Apple Watch leading the way. CCS states that the Cupertino tech giant shifted 16 million devices from its ever-expanding Watch range in 2017 – up 60 percent from 2016.

"Apple has become the market leader for smartwatches,” explained George Jijiashvili, senior analyst for wearables at CCS Insight. “Sales volumes have exceeded expectations and the introduction of a cellular-enabled model has pushed up the value of its sales, which we estimate at $5 billion in 2017."

An interesting point from CCS Insight's latest forecast is huge sales of connected watches for children in the Chinese market, with an estimated 25 million sold there in 2017. However, CCS doesn’t expect that trend to spread globally. "Although we recorded sales of about 1 million units in the US in 2017, we don't expect the kind of volumes we've seen in China,” said Jijiashvili. “And in Europe, privacy concerns and regulatory issues have cut the market to just a few thousand units."

The big loser in the report is Google and its Android Wear platform. CCS estimates that under 5 million units were shipped in 2017 and predicts fewer than 6 million will sell in 2018. Jijiashvili stated: "Google has paid a heavy price for its recent lack of commitment to Android Wear. Attention seems to have shifted to its Pixel smartphones and Google Home products at the expense of smartwatches. To stay competitive and support the growing number of traditional watchmakers making smartwatches such as Fossil, Guess, Movado and TAG Heuer, there needs to be a major update to Android Wear in 2018."

Paul Lamkin is the editor-in-chief of Wareable - the authority on wearable technology and the co-founder of The Ambient - a new smart home focused site.